Liam Robertson: "if you want a Sonic Mania 2, you're going to have to be as vocal as possible"

Perhaps an online petition would be a good place to start such a campaign.

 

Ehh, online petitions never work. Unless... wait, you're being facetious, aren't you?

Nah, I think this is more about just making people aware of the situation, and rallying support to make more noise about it. Like I said, there's a reason *I* haven't been especially vocal about it. I didn't think there's any way it WOULDN'T happen. You'd think Mania's reception would've been all the reason in the world to expect a follow-up. But reading between the lines of Liam's tweet (as well as various other things people "in the know" have said lately) makes me think there probably ARE plenty of people within Sega who'd love to do it. Maybe some of the higher-ups aren't on board. But maybe if there was more of a public campaign pushing for it, they could be swayed?

Same as that campaign we ran a few years back pushing for Sonic 3 to be released again with widescreen, it can't hurt to try, right?

 

For what it's worth, Iizuka has done two recent interviews in which he expressed interest in both developing further 2D games and continuing to use classic Sonic.

From Sonic Stadium's interview:

"To be honest, when we were planning Sonic Mania, we started the project only focused on content that the core fans would enjoy, so we were a bit surprised to find out that a lot of the younger generation that never played the Genesis-era Sonic games enjoyed Sonic Mania. While we always respected that Classic 2D Sonic experience, we feel a certain conviction through the success of Sonic Mania. Looking to the future I would like to grow both the 2D Sonic and 3D Sonic game experiences."

From Retro Gamer's interview (issue 221):

"Initially, we thought bringing the ‘classic’ Sonic into the fold was just going to be a 20th anniversary project, but it was met with such positive responses from fans that we knew we would keep him around. In fact, we have released Sonic Mania focused on the ‘classic’ Sonic in 2017. The ‘classic’ Sonic is a popular iteration who will hopefully be a part of the blue blur’s future.”

Now, that's not Mania 2 confirmed by any stretch, but I do wonder how that ties into the initial statement.

 

Who is Liam Robertson, and why does this become an official stance about Sonic Mania 2? What part does he play in green lighting a sequel?

 

I swear we've had a thread like this before...

If there's a mania 2 petition, I'll sign.

 

I don't know who he is either.

 

This. When I see Liam's page, I see nothing more than a lost games researcher who seems like he belongs with our community, but has no more credibility about it than anyone inside Team Mania or Sega proper does.

Lord knows I'm not above attending an event and asking Iizuka himself for it, but at this point if he doesn't want to make it (which isn't honestly clear)? A petition wouldn't change much.

 

I'd love another Mania with all original zones, so I'd join the effort in getting the word out if a movement springs up.

 

What do you wanna bet he's trying to be the best Zippo? You know, if we get Mania 2, he'll take credit for it, and if not, no one will remember he said it?

 

And here I thought buying three different copies of it would help.

 

Until we know who Liam is and what relevance he has, I don't think this means anything.

I also just don't agree really with the idea that SEGA doesn't want to do Mania because of some classic Sonic backlash. I followed the sonic Twitter and Aaron pretty closely around that time and they were practically climaxing all over themselves everytime Mania got more and more praise in the media....which it constantly did in 2017. Mania is the highest rated Sonic game since 1994 and SEGA has always cared about the opinions of gaming journalists. Always. The fans that don't want classic stuff are loud, but a small group.

I'm bringing this up because Generations was a pretty stellar game as well, even if not as great as Mania. And Sonic Team threw out the entire formula and moved on completely from the game with Lost world. Iizuka said it himself, I believe in an interview with retro actually (iirc), that they just wanted to do something else and find a new direction for 3D sonic to build on (very similar to what was just said about "Rangers" in an interview). They only went back to the boost style after the massive hit to Sonic's reputation that was Boom.

And I think this is closer to the reality of what ST has been for a long time. They take directions that they want to take, not necessarily the ones that make the most sense. It is frustrating at times but it's sort of their signature. One can always count on some sort of surprise from them, whether wanted/needed or not.

 

I read that as him expressing his opinion on what it'll take to convince SEGA to greenlight a Mania 2, not as some special insider information. But maybe he's right; some kind of vocal push akin to the Sonic 3 Remaster couldn't hurt.

 

I have no clue who this Liam is either.

I did participate in that campaign for a Sonic 3 Remaster and I can guarantee you it was not taken that seriously. It was tastefully done I guess, but sending written letters to Japan didn't accomplish much of anything, and I would say that the recent inclusion in Origins was motivated by other factors. Now, if word did get back to social media team in some fashion, then it might help, but even then...

Sales figures are what's going to drive this, not any sort of dedicated campaign. Granted, the free release on the Epic Games store isn't going to help that (and really, you shouldn't use it if you want to use mods anyways).

 

This is dumb. Money and good press talk more than anything. Mania resulted in both of those things. If Sega is too stupid to cash in on a sequel that's their loss.

 

You should never listen to Liam Robertson and always ignore what he says.

 

In this particular case, it's because he constantly posts insider information that's wrong. When called out he usually gets upset and blocks people. This isn't getting into his behavior in other ways.

 

+1 to this. I know people who were blocked by him and told "Fuck off nerd" over the slightest disagreements/virtually nothing to begin with - bloke has a short fuse, low tolerance, and probably should not be taken seriously at any time